Chapter IX
CHAPTER IX: CONCERNING THE EVANGELICAL COUNSELS, AGAINST THE PAPISTS
§ 82. These things have been said regarding the supplements which the Photinians say were added to the moral Law by Christ. Now let us examine the evangelical counsels, called “the counsels of perfection,” which the Scholastics and Papists argue were first published and added to the divine Law by Christ in the Gospel.
** The opinion about those counsels originated out of Pharisaism, because the Pharisees believed that some works of supererogation above and beyond the Law could be performed, as is gathered from Josephus and Epiphanius. From that, the rabbinic scholars have employed a distinction between a חִּיּוב, “debt,” and a לְתֹורָהתיִבַּר, “addition to the Law.” **
It is a certainty among the Papists that a reborn person can render perfect obedience to God’s Law but also can achieve a fuller righteousness than that which has been prescribed in the Law through their works of supererogation, fulfilling what they call the “evangelical counsels.” These works are all too well called “works of supererogation” because an immense amount of money has been paid [erogata] to those who sell these works to others. Indeed, rightly are these works called “works of super-arrogance” because it is an obvious arrogance to promise and attribute any such thing to them. Let us listen to Bellarmine on this subject (De monach., bk. 2, ch. 7), who defines a counsel of perfection as follows:
It is a good work not charged to us by Christ but shown to us, not commanded but commended. It differs from a precept in the area of its matter, of its subject, of its form, and of its end. In regard to its matter, it is different, because the matter of a commandment is easier; of a counsel, more difficult. The matter of a commandment is good; of a counsel, better and more perfect. In regard to its subject, they differ in that a commandment is common to all, but a counsel is not. In regard to form, they differ in that a commandment is binding by its own force while a counsel is placed in the realm of human free choice. In regard to end, they differ in that a commandment which has been kept provides a reward, and an unkept command provides a punishment. But if a counsel is not kept it has no penalty; and if it is kept, it has a greater reward.
In ch. 8 he adds:
There are many evangelical counsels, in the true and proper sense of the word, but especially three: chastity, obedience, and poverty.
These things were taken from the Scholastics. Thomas ([ST,] 1.2., q. 108, art. 4):
A commandment [praeceptum] introduces a necessity; a counsel, an option. Commandments of the new Law are given regarding those things which are necessary to gain the end of eternal blessedness. Counsels are given about those things through which man can achieve the end better and more efficiently. Man is situated among spiritual goods and the things of this world. It is characteristic of a commandment [to say] that one must not set up his ultimate end in the things of this world; it is characteristic of a counsel [to say] that he completely abandon these good things. But the good things of this world which are related to the practice of human life consist of three things, namely, of the riches of one’s exterior goods, of the pleasures of the flesh, [and] of honors. Wealth is abandoned through poverty; the pleasures of the flesh, through chastity; the pride of life, through the servitude of obedience.
They call these three the “essential parts of perfection” [substantialia perfectionis]. Elsewhere they list other evangelical counsels beside these three, as, for instance, not to avenge oneself, to endure injuries patiently, to give more generous alms, not to swear, to avoid occasions for sinning, to form an intention correctly in the matter of good works, to do what is taught, not to be worried about one’s sustenance, to correct a brother. Others number them differently.